It had been sheer torture—a jail sentence with no end.
And it was the reason he was now conflicted about every damn thing in his existence, including Eden. Lucifer was to blame for this unwanted, and hopefully temporary, infusion of humanity.
Darrak hated Lucifer.
And now Theo was ready to step forward and destroy the prince. He’d apparently found the means to do it. Going with him today to get that weapon would ensure Theo’s help in finding a way to break Darrak’s curse and save Eden from certain death.
And when the curse was broken, Darrak wouldn’t feel conflicted or guilty or overly emotional about anything anymore. He’d be restored to his former self, more than ready and willing to do whatever it took to gain more power and prestige. The lowly incubus had the chance to become a lord, and Eden would only be a distant, fleeting memory, much as Kristina was for Theo.
“So are you ready for the ride?” Theo asked, eyeing his friend cautiously.
Darrak grinned. “Giddy up.”
Eden gripped the sides of the sink and tried to calm down. It wasn’t easy.
She hadn’t made a stellar impression on Theo so far. And did she care? Not really.
She had to pull it together, though. Sad but true, he was their only hope at the moment.
She was a little surprised Ben hadn’t shown his face today. Where was he? Was the Malleus planning another little intervention? She really didn’t want to use her magic again, but she would if she had to. She tried not to look at her amulet, but the color had darkened enough to be noticeable. Was there a way to recover—like a washing machine for graying souls—or was this only a one-way street?
Lots of fun questions. And mixed metaphors.
She frowned at her reflection and parted her hair, peering closer at it. Her bright red roots were showing again. She was overdue for a trip to the salon to get them back to the dark auburn color she preferred.
The bright color helped remind her of the man who’d come to visit her as a child when she’d been playing out back of the townhome in Reno her mother rented at the time.
She remembered a bright smile. Green eyes. Red hair.
“Hello, Eden,” he’d said warmly.
“Who’re you?” She’d been wary, even as a little girl. Some things never changed.
He crouched down beside her. “I’m your father. I’m very happy to get the chance to meet you.”
It was a hazy memory since she’d been so young. They chatted for a bit longer, but she couldn’t remember about what. She’d liked him. He’d seemed . . . nice.
It had been the only time she’d ever seen him.
When he left, she went inside and told her mother about the man with the same color hair and eyes as her.
“Don’t talk to strangers” was all Caroline Riley had said about it. She’d seemed disturbed by this alleged visit. “They’ll hurt you.”
Words to live by. And Eden had tried very hard to stick close to that philosophy in the years that passed, but sometimes it was easy to forget. Trusting strangers or boyfriends or friends or mothers had inevitably led to Eden getting hurt—either emotionally or physically.
She didn’t trust easily anymore. Which was one of the reasons Darrak stealing her body had bothered her so much. She had trusted him.
Did she still?
Not completely.
But did he mean her harm? Was he using her?
No. She didn’t believe that.
So she didn’t trust him. But she didn’t not trust him.
Complicated.
She waited a bit longer until she felt calm and courageous enough to return to the table. Just as she took a step toward the door, she felt a pain in her gut. The next moment she doubled over, gasping in pain, as the tearing sensation increased. Perspiration broke out on her forehead, and she clutched at the wall to try to remain standing.
No, not again. Tears welled in her eyes. She couldn’t handle pain like yesterday again. It was too much.
But the next moment the pain disappeared completely. She braced herself for its return, but it didn’t.
She reached into the pocket of her jeans and pulled out the marble Lucas gave her earlier with trembling fingers. She squeezed it. She didn’t believe it would really bring her any luck, but it was a pleasant thought. She needed some pleasant thoughts.
The marble warmed in her palm. When she looked at it, she realized it had started to glow.
Why was it glowing?
She frowned. “What the hell?”
Snap.
A bright white light, as if someone had just taken her photo, emanated from the marble and blinded her. She blinked and rubbed her eyes. When she opened them again, she realized she wasn’t in Opa’s ladies’ room anymore.
THIRTEEN
Eden stood alone on the shore of an ocean, barefoot in the sand. It was warm out and the sun shone above her. There were palm trees and large pink and purple flowers she could see as she turned around in a circle.
She gawked at the nearest palm tree.
What the hell just happened?
Had she passed out because of the pain? Maybe she couldn’t deal with it anymore.
Another thought occurred to her: Was she dead?
No. Her heart was still beating. She was breathing—more rapidly with each passing moment. She could feel the tropical breeze on her skin. This had to be a dream.
It felt too real to be a dream.
From the corner of her eye she noticed a man approaching her. He wore white pants and a white shirt and walked steadily down the beach toward her. As he drew closer, she realized that she recognized him.
“Lucas,” she managed, her voice breathless.
“Glad you could make it, Eden.”
“Am I dreaming right now?”
“No.” He glanced at their surroundings. “This is real. I wanted to talk to you privately. I thought you might like this.”
Her head hurt. She looked down at the marble sitting innocently in the palm of her hand. “And this is—”
“Not a marble.”
“It looks like a marble.”
“It does, doesn’t it? But it’s not. It’s a summoning crystal created especially for you.”
She flexed her right fist, ready to will black magic into it, but nothing happened.
“You can’t use your magic here,” Lucas said. “This is a neutral zone.”
“Who the hell are you?” she demanded.
He smiled. “I’m your new neighbor. The substitute teacher.”
“Yeah, right.”
“You don’t believe me?”
“Strangely, no. Take this. I don’t want it anymore.” She held the marble out to him.
He shook his head. “That’s how we’ll communicate.”
“And why would we want to do that?”
“Because you’re going to help me solve a problem I have at the moment. Someone wants to destroy me. And you’re going to help stop him.”
She looked around. “How do I leave? I need to get back.”
“Darrak will be fine without you for a few minutes. Don’t worry. This isn’t far enough to strain your bond. It’s a metaphysical location rather than a physical one.”
She looked at him sharply. “How do you know anything about that? Tell me who you are, or we’re going to have a problem here.”
His smile didn’t falter. “You’re still welcome to call me Lucas. I like it.”
“But . . .”
“But my full name is”—he raised his gaze to hers—“Lucifer.”
That knocked the breath right out of her. “You’re joking.”
“Nope. No joke.”
Her mouth went as dry as the sand she stood on. “Lucifer. As in the Lucifer. Or were your parents just majorly Goth?”
“The Lucifer.”
She didn’t speak for a moment. She couldn’t speak.
Just as she was about to freak out as fear and panic spread through her, she forced herself to remai
n calm. This couldn’t be the real Lucifer. It was impossible. Wouldn’t Darrak have clued in when they’d met him in the hallway?
Of course he would have.
And wouldn’t the Prince of Hell give off some sort of important vibe? He felt 100 percent human to her. Not even a wisp of magic.
“How do I know you’re telling the truth?” she asked, forcing herself to sound as skeptical as she felt.
“Seriously?” He stared at her for a moment. “You need proof?”
“Well, yeah. Of course.” She nervously poked her big toe into the warm sand. What she really wanted to do was turn and run away, but since she had no idea where she was, she knew that wouldn’t help.
“You need to take my word for it.”
She crossed her arms. “Why would the real Lucifer be concerned about anyone trying to destroy him? Wouldn’t you be all powerful and all evil?”
He raked a hand through his short brown hair. “This meeting is not going nearly as well as I’d anticipated.”
She was losing her fear the more she spoke. “Lucifer wouldn’t need my help.”
“Oh, really?”
“That’s right. And if I refused to help, he would have already killed me. I’ve seen the movies, you know. I know demons.”
“You think so, do you?”
She glanced at the beach around her again. “Maybe you’re that wizard master Stanley was talking about. Maksim. And you’re trying to mess with me. He said you were at a resort right now on vacation. Is this it?”
Lucas rolled his eyes. “And to think you own a private investigation agency. You’re no Nancy Drew, are you?”
She drew close enough to poke him in the chest. Even that felt completely human to her. More proof that’s exactly what he was. “Okay, Maksim. Enough. You have no damn idea how close I am to the edge this week. You do not want to piss off a black witch who doesn’t come with an instruction manual. You think PMS is bad? Guess again.”
“I’m not Maksim,” he said patiently.
“Then who are you?”
“Lucifer.” He gritted his teeth. “Like I already said.”
“Sure you are.” Still, her voice shook a little.
“You want proof?” he asked. “Take my hand.”
She looked down at his outstretched hand for a moment and then grabbed it. “Fine.”
Snap.
The next moment the beach and ocean were gone. Eden now stood on a rocky precipice that jutted out from a cliff side. She looked down into bleak horror below. Flames undulated like a terrifying ocean hundreds of feet below. It was fire for as far as her eye could see. She felt the heat reach up and wrap itself around her, oppressive, making it hard to breathe. She couldn’t see anyone else, but screams of terror and pain pierced her eardrums.
A rock shifted and fell to the canyon below, and she shrieked as she almost lost her balance. Lucas grabbed her arm before she fell.
“Welcome to my home,” he said. “As a living human, you normally wouldn’t be able to visit here, but much like the beach, this is only a representation.”
“What is this place?” she managed.
“I’ll give you three guesses, but the first two don’t count. Let’s just say it’s a nice place to visit, but you probably wouldn’t want to live here.”
“Hell.”
“Part of it. There are many other areas, but this is the place that looks the best on the postcards. Do you believe me now?”
She couldn’t think straight. “I . . . I’m not sure . . .”
“Fine,” he replied. “Have it your way.”
He pushed her off the side of the cliff and she fell, head-first and screaming, into the ocean of fire.
Snap.
Back to the beach. Lucas sat beside her, dragging his fingers through the sand. A warm breeze wafted through her hair. Her heart jackhammered in her chest.
“Theo will require your help to find a weapon here in the human world,” he said evenly. “He believes it has the power to destroy me. For now I only want you to observe, but eventually I’ll need you to bring it to me.”
She stared at him. He was Lucifer, wasn’t he? No matter how much she tried to deny it, it didn’t change anything.
“Why me?” She fought the urge to scramble away from him. He looked so harmless, but he wasn’t. Looks could be so deceiving.
“Because you’re close to the action. Also because we have a few things in common.”
Her eyebrows went up. “I find that hard to believe.”
He absently made patterns in the sand. “You’ve recently been dealing with a curse. I’ve been dealing with one for an eternity. You have a powerful darkness inside you that you shouldn’t use. So do I.”
She let that sink in. “Hold on. You’re concerned that you have a darkness inside you that you shouldn’t use.”
“That’s what I said.”
She just stared at him blankly. “I find that hard to wrap my head around.”
“I don’t doubt it.” He met her gaze, and he looked so incredibly human. “Many people confuse me with Satan. I don’t doubt that you would, too.”
A shiver coursed down her spine at the other recognizable horror movie name. “Are you trying to say he’s the real prince of darkness and you’ve just gotten a bad reputation because of him?”
“Not exactly.” He was silent so long she wasn’t sure he’d say anything else. And then, “Satan is who I become when I use my dark powers. He’s who you should really be afraid of. Satan is my curse, part of my punishment—the one I received when I was cast out of Heaven. And with your help I can destroy him once and for all.”
Eden just gaped at him. It was a look she figured she’d perfected today.
Lucas stood up and paced to the waterline before turning and coming back. “And you’re the one who gets to know the truth. Don’t you feel lucky?” He grinned, but it was strained. “All of this time, thousands of years, I’ve been cursed to remain in Hell. Cursed with an inner darkness that keeps me from redemption.”
More gaping on Eden’s part. “You want to be redeemed?”
“More than anything. I was cast out of Heaven because I refused to kneel before humans.” His face shadowed with disgust. “Insects. Powerless, ungrateful, and dirty, destroying the gift of this world from the moment they were created. And I’m supposed to love them unconditionally?” His lips thinned. “I tried to accept my punishment and make the best of it, but I never have. I want to go back to my home. But the curse works like an anchor, trapping me in Hell.”
“But you’re here.” She looked around the beach, trying to make sense of what he was telling her. It wasn’t easy. “I touched you in the hallway of my apartment. You’re real.”
“I’ve found a way to enter the human world, but . . .” He trailed off.
“But what?”
“But when I’m there, I’m not exactly the same as I am in Hell.”
She studied him carefully and warily, trying to sense something in him, but there was still nothing. That alone helped clue her in to what was really going on here. After a moment, she gasped. “Wait a minute. Are you . . . human here? I don’t sense anything more from you because there’s nothing more to sense, is there?”
It was as if the answer came to her head directly from Alex Trebek himself.
He raised pale brown eyes to hers, and she could see the shock and immediate distrust. She’d figured out his little secret too quickly. “You sensed that, did you?”
Eden just nodded, waiting for him to deny it.
He didn’t. “It’s why I try to stay here as little as possible. It would be very embarrassing if I got hit by a bus while crossing the street.”
“What would happen then?” she asked, trying to reconcile everything she was learning from him and failing miserably.
“Straight back to Hell on a one-way ticket. Unable to summon the energy to leave again for decades. It’s an imperfect science, but it’s the only way. In the human world I have to be
human.”
“Why?”
“My strong distaste for them might lead me to lay waste to everyone I see.”
“You’d do that?”
“If I used enough of my power and Satan came out to play, it’s very possible.”
“You make it sound like Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.”
“Because that’s very much what it’s like for me.”
“So . . . Lucifer . . . or Lucas,” she began, “is your nice side—”
“Nice might be a bit of an exaggeration.”
“And Satan is the truly evil one.”
“With my curse in place, I represent the darkness in either of my guises. But you wouldn’t want to meet Satan. I’m not quite as good of a conversationalist when he’s in control.” He cocked his head to the side. “You’re the first I’ve chosen to have this conversation with in a very, very long time. You should feel very honored.”
Honored was one thing she didn’t feel at the moment. Eden crossed her arms tightly in front of her. “I need to get back. Darrak will wonder where I’ve gone.”
“Time isn’t an issue here, but there’s no reason to draw this out. I’ve told you what I want from you. The weapon Theo will acquire today may have the power to kill me. But I want to use it to kill Satan instead. If I can destroy my darkness, maybe my light can finally be restored.”
She considered this for an uneasy moment. “You really think Heaven’s going to welcome you back with open arms after all this time?”
His jaw clenched. “I’ve learned my lesson. There’s no reason for them to continue to torture me by ignoring my existence. So will you do this for me? Watch Theo and bring me the weapon when I ask?”
“I don’t know.” She took a deep breath and let it out slowly. “Look, if what you’re saying is true, you’re Lucifer. And Satan. And that’s just way too much for me to absorb during one day at the beach.”
“You’re saying you don’t trust me.”
“That pretty much sums it up.”